The Pitiful Child

Entering Xinzhao City, everyone could tell the nights here were hotter than elsewhere. Song Weishi felt like she was cycling under the midday sun again.

Even her cooling sleepwear had lost most of its effect, leaving her feeling as if she were wearing nothing more than a summer short-sleeve. A thin layer of sweat began to form on her skin.

Yet, for reasons none of them could explain, they didn't feel the same discomfort they had during the day. After waking up, they all felt stronger than before.

Even Sister Chen, usually the most prone to heatstroke, felt fine. The highway cut straight through the heart of Xinzhao City. Had they been traveling during daylight, they would have seen nothing but scorched earth as far as the eye could reach.

Fields and woodlands stretched out in blackened ruin, with not a trace of green left. Xinzhao City was a mountain of flames, the air still carrying the lingering smell of old combustion.

The searing heat radiating from the ground had left even the roadside trees wilted and limp—further proof that stopping during the day had been the right call.

It was pure coincidence. Had they pushed on just a little further, they wouldn't have found any shade at all.

The people were fine now, but the concern was the vehicles. Everyone pedaled with extra care, swerving around any pothole or uneven stretch they could.

Song Weishi couldn't help noticing that even the moonlight in Xinzhao City seemed brighter. She could make out the road clearly without a flashlight. The others felt the same way.

They rode at a fast clip, finishing the ring road and then moving onto the road leading out of town.

The cars here had mostly burned down to hollow husks of metal, though the road surface itself wasn't in bad shape.

Truthfully, cycling down a highway felt bizarre.

In the old world, such a thing would never have happened. Getting onto a highway always carried that nagging fear of being slammed into by a speeding car.

With nothing to do, Song Weishi's mind drifted into all sorts of fantasies. The hotter it got, the more she imagined herself inside an ice room. It was a poor man's mental victory, but it offered some small comfort, and that was better than nothing.

She even struck up a conversation with the System. The two of them discussed the original plot at length, agreeing that the book had been far too careless with its good characters' fates. Why was it always the villains who survived while the good ones got killed off?

Honestly, it read like a garbage novel that only let the heroine live to the end. No wonder she'd fallen asleep within a few pages. Stay awake any longer and she'd have ended up with a breast lump from pure stress.

Maybe the author wanted to show how brutal the apocalypse could be, but killing off too many good people turned the story from satisfying to bitter.

At least now that she'd transmigrated into this world, that kind of plot line was no more.

As Song Weishi grumbled to herself, she opened today's little convenience store.

Loading today's products:

Cooling oil 500ml × 1

Peppermint candies 500g × 1

Strong-scent essential lotion 500ml × 1

Song Weishi's eyes lit up. Everything today was summer-themed?

The cooling oil had no smell, so she could use it right away. The essential lotion, though, was the scented kind, and using it now would definitely draw attention.

She'd start with the peppermint candies instead. They were individually wrapped, so she could try one to see if they were any good.

Cycling carefully, Song Weishi pulled out a single candy from her space. Inside the transparent wrapper lay a blue pill.

It was dotted with tiny white speckles. The bag contained both hard and soft candies.

She picked out a soft one, tore the wrapper open with her teeth, and popped it into her mouth. The empty wrapper flew off in the wind, no trouble at all.

But instead of a cool, refreshing sensation, what hit her was a horrible toothpaste flavor.

It was like someone had squeezed a huge glob of mint toothpaste straight into her mouth—a sticky, nauseating rush that flooded her mouth and nose. She nearly gagged.

She barely managed to swallow it down, and after that, a bitter taste lingered everywhere. Her eyes welled up with tears, and her stomach churned with sour acid.

She quickly gulped down some water to wash away the awful taste.

This was supposed to be a product from the convenience store? How could something this disgusting even exist?

Honestly, she'd always had absolute faith in the store's quality, but now she was starting to have doubts. Could this stuff even be eaten?

No sooner had the question crossed her mind than the System answered it.

"That's not a soft candy meant for eating. It's for breath freshening. You're supposed to chew it a few times and spit it out. No one actually swallows it."

Song Weishi was stunned. "Then why didn't you say so earlier! You just watched me swallow it!"

The System: °ω°

The System: "Apologies, host. I thought you saw the instructions on the wrapper."

The System did pop the packaging for her every time, but Song Weishi always flipped past it without a second glance. She never had the patience to read.

She'd always assumed the System would remind her. After all, she was practically one of their own by now.

But she'd been had. Song Weishi cursed her rotten luck.

Still, there was one plus side to swallowing that candy. She could feel a faint coolness rising from her stomach, a far more pleasant sensation than the stale, murky feeling she'd had before.

She picked out a hard candy next, reading the wrapper carefully this time.

This one was fruit-flavored. "Extra-strength fresh breath. Can be consumed normally." Only then did she tear it open and pop it in her mouth.

The taste was much better. Orange.

It was like fruit juice bursting in her mouth. Once she licked away the powdery coating, a powerful blast of mint shot into her mouth. Even breathing in felt like shoving snow from a winter landscape straight between her lips.

At that moment, every fantasy she'd had about being cold came true. It was blissful.

Song Weishi's eyes narrowed into crescents, her amber irises shimmering like a pair of glass gems in the dark. Beautiful.

She yawned and dabbed some cooling oil onto her face. The strong wind swept past, carrying a hint of freshness.

After two hours of riding, the aunts stopped. Their throats were going dry as dust, and they couldn't go another meter.

But if they just stopped here, their water reserves would dwindle faster and faster. The supply that was supposed to last until Huihai City would be gone by the end of today.

Song Weishi couldn't let that happen. She pulled out the peppermint candies she'd scavenged from the little cart and handed them to the aunts.

The taste was terrible, sure, but if they could tough it out, they'd make it through this stretch without a problem.

She gave each of them two pieces. She'd also left the candies out at room temperature for a while, so the ones that normally needed chewing to soften were already pliable enough to pinch flat.

She kindly explained how to use them: "These candies are pretty cooling. Just keep them in your mouth and don't swallow, or the effect will wear off too fast."

The aunts each popped one in. Their expressions twisted first, then contorted in unison.

"Xiao Song, this candy..."

Sister Chen's saliva started flowing uncontrollably. She wanted to spit it out, but after hearing Song Weishi's explanation, she figured it must be something good. She couldn't bear to waste it, so it just sat in her mouth, neither here nor there—deeply uncomfortable.

Seeing Song Weishi's eager expression, she forced a smile through the mess. "Not bad, this candy... Nice and cool."

Seeing how "well" they'd taken to it, Song Weishi let out a relieved breath.

As long as they could eat it, she had plenty more.

"Where'd you get these? The flavor's got some kick."

Xie Huiying chimed in. Her whole mouth was cool, sure, but it was also nearly numb.

She grinned and grimaced, sucking in big breaths, each one colder than the last.

Song Weishi made a vague gesture. "I think I ordered them from some livestream shop a while back. I couldn't finish them all alone, so I'm sharing them with you all."

None of the aunts questioned why she hadn't brought them out before. The things really were awful. It was like their mouths were under attack, the constant stimulation making it hard to even speak.

But when they drank water, the parched, scratchy throats that had plagued them moments ago suddenly felt renewed.

Guo Li gave her a thumbs up. "Good stuff."

Even Yuan Ayi, who rarely spoke, offered her share of praise.

Song Weishi smiled and pushed her bike forward. "Come on, let's move. We need to get out of here fast. Xinzhao City is way too hot—if we stay any longer, we'll burn through all our water."

The others all nodded and climbed onto their bikes. Though the candies were unpleasant, they did effectively soothe their dry throats.

A single small candy, left unchewed and unswallowed, could last a very long time.

Everything on the highway had been reduced to ash, so they passed through Xinzhao City without obstruction.

As soon as they exited, everyone felt the heat ease. Song Weishi still had half a bag of candies left and offered them to the group, but after accepting a couple of pieces, they all refused to take more.

Eating those candies meant giving up control of your mouth. And once you stopped, you felt nothing anyway. Unless it was an absolute emergency, none of them would ever touch those things again. They'd been scarred.

Song Weishi had no choice but to abandon the idea of giving them all away. She shoved them into her space for storage instead.

Once out of Xinzhao City, the temperature returned to what it had been before. Song Weishi found it distinctly cooler than that furnace.

The greenery around them flourished again, thick and lush. They veered down a sealed side road, passed a few farm fields, and arrived at a small town.

This was one of the supply points Xie Huiying had marked. It had been a long while since she'd last visited. They pushed through the overgrown weeds along the outer path, and familiar sights slowly reappeared before them.

The outskirts here were more rural. Low, self-built houses stood scattered across the area. Streetlamps lined both sides of the road but were dark now—the village appeared to have lost power.

With no one left to tend them, weeds in many courtyards were nearly swallowing the houses whole.

The streets were paved with old brick. The weeds here were sparse, and there were signs of trampling. Someone had been active here recently.

Whether that was good or bad for them remained to be seen.

Wherever people were, extra caution was a given. After the last lesson they'd learned, no one believed in innate human goodness anymore.

Song Weishi pushed her bicycle quietly down the street. Every door was shut tight. She wondered if they should find an empty place to stay for the day.

After all, this area was mostly farmland. The bushes weren't thick enough to hide a person, and the last thing she wanted was to get bitten by something like what happened above.

Song Weishi drew closer to Xie Huiying, and the two discussed where they should rest during the day.

Xie Huiying said, "It's cooler here than other places. We can find any abandoned house and settle in. If we're lucky, we might find a household with a well—maybe draw some water too."

Song Weishi thought it sounded good, but the idea was a bit too idealized. In an environment this water-scarce, any water source in this small village would almost certainly be guarded by someone.

It wasn't that she was a pessimist—she'd simply seen too much of the same thing.

Xie Huiying thought for a moment, then gathered everyone together. They found a decent-looking empty house, climbed over the wall, and opened the gate from the inside. The courtyard was neat and square, with a large orange tree growing in the middle.

Apart from some fallen leaves and weeds, it looked quite clean. The house's doors and windows were locked, and they had no intention of breaking in. There were a few lounge chairs in the yard, so they could just lie down and rest. The orange tree cast a wide, welcoming shade that would completely shield them from the sun. Lying down under it was especially comfortable.

The only drawback was that the courtyard walls were a bit low. A tall person standing outside could easily jump and see what was inside.

But this was the best yard they'd found. All the others had locked gates.

The other courtyards weren't clean either, and the houses all had security bars on the windows and heavy doors. Getting inside would be hard.

After scouting several places, this one was the most comfortable.

As long as no one came around, they could sleep in peace.

The sun climbed high. The group lay on the lounge chairs, drifting off into a quiet sleep. Before she closed her eyes, Song Weishi glanced at the System. The store interface, which had been stuck on a spinning loading screen, had finally refreshed.

Song Weishi was surprised to realize so many days had passed. Life was hard, and she'd been counting every day on her fingers.

The last refresh had plenty of items she couldn't afford. This time, tapping in, her gaze landed on a green item.

Its description read: House Simulator. Song Weishi tapped in without hesitation.

House Simulator: Choose any single room as your base. Items produced by the System become invisible within that room. When outsiders enter, they will not detect anything unusual. The holder may place the simulator in the room at any time.

Song Weishi's eyes gleamed. "House Simulator"? That was basically magic. She'd been worrying about how to pull out her cooling machine without raising suspicion. If this was for real, everything would be easy.

When she got to Huihai City, she could settle into a place and set it up. And if she ever needed to move, she could take all her arrangements with her. To everyone else, she'd look incredibly minimal, but only she would know how comfortable her life truly was.

Grinning, Song Weishi checked the price. This was a green-quality product, priced at 10 Points. Nice and affordable—she could swing that.

She bought it on the spot. The other two refreshes were also new, so she gave them a look.

Store refresh:

Nutrient solution 100ml × 10 [20 Points]

Mystery box × 1 [80 Points]

Damn, that was expensive. Song Weishi closed the store panel with a blank expression. She had zero interest.

She had plenty of food already. There was no point in buying nutrient solution.

And that mystery box? It looked far too unreliable—even more expensive than the resident card. The description didn't list what it could contain, giving her no desire at all to buy it.

Ever since her trust in the System had "collapsed," Song Weishi had become much more careful about these things.

She wasn't about to spend Points on useless junk. Even if the System vouched for the item's quality, she didn't want to gamble that much on an unknown. Those Points had been earned one kill at a time.

Clutching the House Simulator close, Song Weishi drifted off to sleep, already dreaming of what life in Huihai City would be like. A peaceful home, just like the rental apartment she'd had back in the original world.

A smile tugged at her lips as she dreamed, planning out her future home... when a sharp, wailing cry tore her from sleep.

Aunt Huang, a light sleeper, snapped her eyes open. She sprang up from her chair like a shot, one hand pressed to her chest as she fought to steady her breathing. She'd nearly given herself a heart attack, convinced some monster had come for them.

Everyone woke to the sound. Jolted from her dream, Song Weishi felt her heart pounding violently, her chest tight and heavy. She kept her eyes closed for a long moment until she could pull herself upright on the lounge chair.

The crying outside continued without pause. It belonged to a small girl, screaming in desperation as she ran back and forth across the small town.

At this hour, the sun wasn't at its strongest. It was as if even the sun was showing mercy upon this little village.

If she were anywhere else, a small child running like that in this heat would have collapsed within minutes.

But in this village, the daytime and nighttime temperatures seemed about the same. Or perhaps the nights here were even cooler.

The child's voice grew closer, and the group finally made out what she was shouting: "Help! Please... is anyone there? Please, can someone help me? Please, my grandma... someone help my grandma!"

"Uncles, aunties, please save my grandma! Please! She collapsed! Please, someone come see! Please!"

The crying was heartbreaking. Where were her parents? Why had a child been sent out alone to beg for help?

The group walked to the front gate and peeked out.

There was a little girl, barely a meter tall, going door to door with a small umbrella, knocking on every single house.

Her thin body staggered from one neighbor to the next, but no one opened their doors. In fact, no one even came out. The street was silent as the grave.

As they'd suspected, this town did have people.

Before long, she reached their gate. Xie Huiying closed the door and listened as the girl's cries grew hoarser. A heavy weight settled in her chest.

She could understand why the townsfolk wouldn't help. No one wanted to go out at a time like this.

Even they, standing in the shade of the doorway with umbrellas, found it unbearable. To say nothing of anyone else.

The girl pushed on through sheer will, still knocking, but her cries were growing weak. What had once been a piercing wail was now a raw, rasping plea.

From under the eaves, Song Weishi glanced at the neighboring houses. A few curtains seemed to twitch, but no one made a move to help.

Xie Huiying noticed that several houses had set empty buckets outside their doors. When the little girl came back around, she faltered for a moment, then picked one up. It held a little water—maybe a quarter full.

She wobbled under the weight, set it back down by the doorstep, and knocked again. "Mama Ma! My grandma collapsed! Please come see her! Please, I'm begging you! She's on the ground and won't wake up no matter what I do!"

The girl burst into fresh tears. Her crying was gut-wrenching. Even in her panic, she kept her manners, not once pounding on the door.

A hesitant woman's voice came from inside. "Ni Ni, do you have any huoxiang zhengqi water at home? Your grandma might have heatstroke. It's that little black medicine bottle. I saw you drink it once before."

The girl sniffled, trying to remember through her tears. "Is it that bitter one? Grandma keeps it on the kitchen cabinet... I can't reach it..."

The aunts in the yard couldn't stand it any longer. They had warm hearts to begin with—that was how they'd fallen in with Song Weishi in the first place.

Still, they all looked at Song Weishi in silent consensus. Sister Chen spoke first. "Xiao Song, should we go check it out?"

Song Weishi looked at the girl outside. Her thin frame wasn't exactly clean. She'd fallen a couple of times while running—her clothes were dusty, her hair an unkempt mess.

Nothing seemed off about her. She observed for a little longer, then nodded.

With her approval, the group hurriedly dressed and grabbed their gear.

The gate creaked open. The neighbors filtering back to their own yards retreated instantly, leaving only the little girl standing there in bewilderment, her hand still gripping the bucket's handle.

As she turned around, Xie Huiying crouched down. "Little one, what happened to your grandma?"

As they drew closer, Song Weishi caught an unpleasant smell coming off her—a sour, unwashed odor. Her matted hair looked like it hadn't been washed in days. Whether it was lack of resources or simple neglect, Song Weishi couldn't tell. Her face was smudged with dirt, tear tracks cutting pale lines through the grime. She bit her lip, staring up at them with a mix of misery and wariness.

She seemed reluctant to talk to strangers, but when Sister Chen gently patted her head and brushed the dust off her clothes, the girl broke down and sobbed aloud.

"I... my grandma... she fainted! She's on the ground and won't wake up no matter what I do..."

Xie Huiying wiped the tears from her face. "Where is she? Take us there."

The girl nodded and took Xie Huiying's hand, walking as fast as her exhausted little legs would allow. She'd spent all her strength running and calling for help.

Luckily, her house wasn't far. The front door hadn't been shut when she left. She didn't bother picking up her shoes, which had fallen off by the entrance, and led them quickly through.

The old house was dim inside, barely distinguishable in the low light. With no electricity, they could only feel their way in.

No sooner were they inside than something felt wrong. A sour, rancid odor hung in the air. The smell reminded Song Weishi of eggs left out of the fridge in summer for a few days.

It was unbearable, and the deeper they went, the stronger the stench grew.

Everyone had a bad feeling. Xie Huiying's expression turned complicated as she shook her head at the others. "She might already be gone."

Sister Chen's voice was hushed and worried. "Is this kid... in shock?"

"Maybe the grief was too much. She hasn't realized her grandma's already dead."

The girl seemed to smell nothing at all. She walked inside, still holding her little umbrella aloft, the shade covering her entire back, leading them deeper into the room.

"Wuwuwu... Grandma... Grandma..."

She cried louder and louder, gasping for breath as if the air were clean, yet the umbrella balanced on her shoulder didn't waver in the slightest.

Song Weishi grabbed the others and took a step back. "Something's wrong. She knows."